Imageworks employees are treated to a gathering on a semi-monthly basis, appropriately named monthlies. For those of you who haven’t spent any time there, the format is pretty simple. A handful of executives will get up in front of the theater and speak briefly about their respective departments, and they will talk about corporate direction, future bids, etc. Next, a Visual Effects supervisor or two will address the crowd and do a brief presentation on the shows that they are leading. Finally, sizzle reels for the shows in production are displayed for folks to see what other teams are working on.

It’s a nice way to take a break from work, see other folks face to face, appreciate their work, and have a few beers afterward.

This monthlies, however, had an interesting twist. Imageworks executive Randy Lake addressed the crowd and made everyone aware that management knows about the organization attempt. He said that while he respects the rights of employees to organize, he would encourage those employees to check out some of the benefits that Imageworks already offers employees. He then proceeded to encourage folks to get in contact with P&O (Sony speak for HR) to see what sort of benefits they have available to them.

While we don’t discount the fact that Imageworks offers benefits to freelancers and better benefits to staff members, we should point out the biggest issue with Mr. Lake’s points: most of the employees in that room are going to leave Imageworks at some point in the future, voluntarily or otherwise.

Even if Sony offered its freelancers the best benefits in the world, it wouldn’t change the fact that as soon as they leave, they would no longer be eligible for any of these. That’s where the Union comes in. Health care, pension, and 401(k) are portable with the Union, so not only do you get great benefits, you get to keep them no matter where you work, providing you work a certain number of hours at a union shop per year.